Hi,
Manu Abraham wrote:
> Also can you check whether the demodulator is getting extremely hot ?
> This might not be applicable, but sometime back i was the first to face
> this by burning my fingers after which the demodulator never worked as
> expected. results were very weird that time.
Cannot check that precisely. If you have a look at
http://home.vrweb.de/~rnissl/images/pa150070.jpg
you can see part of my development system. It's a micro ATX board in a
desktop case with cover removed for several years already. The cards
from right to left are, GF6600, SkyStar HD, NOVA-S CI, Netgear WLAN.
I've put the AUX temperature sensor of my board between the two DVB
cards. The sensor reports ~ 50 °C.
> I guess the the back paddle (the STB0899 sinks the heat on to the PCB,
> there is a metal flange at the backside of the STB0899, which is soldered
> on to the PCB, through the thermal via's. If the soldering is bad, then also
> the demod get's too hot. if it get's too hot, it behaves weird)
But I've had the DVB-S2 tuning issue even with a cold system. A reboot
or a power cycle solved this issue most of the time. There was just a
single case when I had to power off the system several times.
> Read on, there is a comment from STM on this, check this as well.
>>> stb0899_get_dev_id: ID reg=[0x82]
>> stb0899_get_dev_id: Device ID=[8], Release=[2]
>>>> It may take several weeks of normal use before I can report success or
>> failure. This is my current distribution of Release:
>>>> 1 stb0899_get_dev_id: Device ID=[15], Release=[11]
>> 1 stb0899_get_dev_id: Device ID=[1], Release=[6]
>> 29 stb0899_get_dev_id: Device ID=[8], Release=[1]
>> 19 stb0899_get_dev_id: Device ID=[8], Release=[2]
>> 1 stb0899_get_dev_id: Device ID=[8], Release=[7]
>> Looks fscke'd. bah. Looks like I2C transaction failures.
>> Do you see any errors like this ?
>> "Read error, Reg=[0x%02x], Status=%d",
>> or
>> anything like that ?
video:/var/log # bzcat messages-*.bz2 | cat - messages | grep 'Read
error, Reg' | sed -e 's/.* video kernel: //g' | sort | uniq -c
1 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xf000], Status=-121
1 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xf000], Status=-5
4 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xf0a0], Status=-121
2 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xf0a0], Status=-5
1 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xf0a1], Status=-121
1 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xf0a1], Status=-5
7 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xf0a8], Status=-121
12 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xf12a], Status=-121
4 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xf1b3], Status=-121
2 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xf1b3], Status=-5
2 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xf1c2], Status=-121
2 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xf1c3], Status=-121
2 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xf2ff], Status=-121
2 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xf2ff], Status=-5
1 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xf40e], Status=-121
1 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xf40e], Status=-5
1 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xf412], Status=-121
1 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xf412], Status=-5
5 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xf41b], Status=-121
1 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xf41d], Status=-121
1 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xf438], Status=-121
3 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xf439], Status=-121
2 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xf43a], Status=-121
23 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xf50d], Status=-121
2 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xf533], Status=-121
1 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xf583], Status=-121
7 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xf619], Status=-121
39 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xf6ff], Status=-121
31 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xf6ff], Status=-5
9 _stb0899_read_reg: Read error, Reg=[0xff11], Status=-121
3 stb0899_read_regs Read error, Reg=[0xf413], Count=2, Status=-121
1 stb0899_read_regs Read error, Reg=[0xf413], Count=2, Status=-5
1 stb0899_read_regs Read error, Reg=[0xf43e], Count=2, Status=-121
video:/var/log #
But there was none since I had powered on the system yesterday.
video:/var/log # cat messages | grep 'Read error, Reg' | sed -e 's/.*
video kernel: //g' | sort | uniq -c
video:/var/log # head -n 1 messages
Oct 14 09:45:01 video syslogd 1.4.1: restart.
video:/var/log # tail -n 1 messages
Oct 15 23:25:08 video kernel: stb0899_get_params: Get DVB-S2 params
video:/var/log #
>> Compared to my earlier report, Release=[2] has increased by 3.
>>>> BTW: the RTL transponder tuning issue hasn't improved here.
>> Sounds strange. Let's look at all the options 1 by one
>> Do you have any of those V4L devices which do a probe ?
I don't know what you mean. This is how I load the drivers in VDR's
runvdr script:
# Load all DVB driver modules needed for your hardware:
function LoadDriver()
{
make -C /soft/src/v4l-dvb load
# make -C /soft/src/v4l-dvb debug
}
> Some demods are very sensitive to such things. if so try removing
> all such cards. I have seen such nasty experiences on other hardware
> as well. Please check whether it holds true.
What should I test with the cards removed?
Don't think that it has an influence on the RTL tuning. Everything else
happens not often enough or cannot be reproduced.
> Does your card work fine with the windows driver, or does it
> exhibit the same problems there as well ?
Well, I don't boot into windows that often. The installation is
basically meant to install the accompanying drivers to have a check
whether the hardware is working.
So far, it was always working with windows. But I think, since March 07,
I've only booted about 7 times into windows to "watch TV". And I think,
that I've rebooted Linux about 7 times over that period when the card
was not working properly. Since July 07 I was using this card with VDR
and powered off the system on a daily basis.
Regarding tuning to RTL transponder: it works in windows like the tuning
to all the other DVB-S and -S2 transponder.
> This was another suggestion by Peter (STM):
>> "Check the back paddle is properly soldered. Generally this can be done by
> pushing the IC down with your fingers."
>> Do this physical straining only if you are sure that you are facing the same
> with the windows driver as well.
If I get you right, then I should not push the IC just for fun as it or
the card could get damaged.
> (Head is spinning now, strange indeed what you see)
Thanks for your support.
Bye.
--
Dipl.-Inform. (FH) Reinhard Nissl
mailto:rnissl at gmx.de